By Angelia McGowan

The City of Denver recognized the Pan African Arts Society as a pioneering arts and social change organization by declaring April 23-29, as "Pan African Arts Society Black is Beautiful Week!” The week featured the “Black is… CultureFeast” (formally known as the Denver Pan African Film Festival).

“This year we are going through a re-branding phase, and we did not know how our audience would react,” said the society’s founder and creative director, Ashara Ekundayo. “Over eight years of planning this event, we’ve found that while our audience values film, they tend to attend more live performances where they can interact with the artists. This year’s success is a direct result of paying attention to our audience. It’s more than a Black film festival. It’s a cultural feast of Black beauty.”

Live performances featured spoken word, hip-hop, reggae, and afrobeat – a music genre rooted in political struggle, developed by Nigerian performer Fela Kuti. In addition, the Black Is…CultureFeast honored “artivists” – arts supporters and cultural workers who use their talent to influence social change. Special guests included actor and activist, Danny Glover. A rewind of the week shows a “multimedia mashup” of live performances, films and parties.

Opening night featured a standing-room-only concert and awards ceremony at LaRumba with classic, veteran hip-hop diva Bahamadia. The evening showcased the Café Nuba slam poetry team, as well as a live performance painting session with Jay Paul Apodaca and the Future Jazz Project.

"New York. London. Kingston.” was one of the themes for the double-header Thursday night at the new Crossroads at Five Points Theatre, located at 26th Avenue and Washington Street. It was the venue’s inaugural event. The evening celebrated roots and reggae vibrations with a CD release event for two nationally-ranked poets, Ainsley Burrows and Tshaka Campbell, and included an acoustic set with sultry vocalist Sparlha Swa.

“Crossroads did not actually receive its certificate of occupancy until 3:30 p.m. that same day,” said Ekundayo. “This festival was truly an exercise in faith that the ancestors, the community and the performers believed in the festival and came together in unprecedented ways to make all the pieces fall into place.”

Across town at the historic Oriental Theater on North Tennyson, the Pan African Arts Society’s Q-POC Lounge program co-hosted a youth event with community sponsor Bent Lens Cinema. It featured “HomoHop West,” slated as a queer, mixed-media extravaganza which included a film screening of the award-winning documentary, “Pick Up the Mic” by Alex Hinton, and a live concert by Bay Area performance groups such as Deep Dickollective and Paradigm.

In honor of National Poetry Month, the annual Cafe Nuba Showcase on Friday presented a star-studded lineup of Tony Award-winning poets from HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Sponsored by Podslam.org and Just Media, the showcase included a mini-concert by revolutionary rap artists, Umi and M-1 of Dead Prez, who received this year’s Oscar Brown, Jr. Award.

“At 8:30 p.m., there was literally a line down 26th Avenue with folks eager and excited to get into our new beautiful home, Crossroads at Five Points,” she said.

The third annual BrownSuga Youth Fest at the Starz Film Center was the Saturday feature of the Black is… Culturefeast. Founded and coordinated by Metro State College student, Ietef Vita, and the arts society !BLAM Coordinator, Maurice Ka, the all-day event was a positive hip-hop showcase including an outdoor extravaganza with the four main elements of hip-hop – deejays, break dancers, emcees, and graffiti artists.

The event taught more than 200 students and community members how to use their culture to make changes in their communities. Arts collective, Magnet Mafia, facilitated youth in painting a mobile mural piece funded by community groups, Get R!eal, Forest City Stapleton, and Monster Energy Drink. It creatively addressed how ad campaigns of big tobacco firms "buy young people's approval of smoking by utilizing hip-hop cultural themes." The mural's message –  "our culture IS NOT for sale!” – was also part of the later “Knowledge of Self” panel discussion, which included local and national arts and health professionals and activists.

The evening also featured a special free screening of "The Hip Hop Project," directed by Matt Ruskin and co-produced by Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah, with a question and answer session led by M-1 of Dead Prez. Later, the 8th edition of the monthly very late night, award-winning dance party, “AfroBlu,” jumped off with national performers and deejays from Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas.

The Black is…Culturefeast closed on Sunday with an invitation-only film screening of  “Waiting for Happiness" by Abderrahmane Sissako and the Denver Urban Spectrum's Fade2Black awards reception. Reception sponsors included the Department of African & African American Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver and the Veterans of Hope Project at Iliff School of Theology. Local community awardees included Theodora Jackson, Twisted Sol, the Mercury Café, Sisters of Color United for Education, and the National Institute of Indigenous Cultural Studies. Danny Glover received the SoulSpirit Award (see related story, "Glover Accepts SoulSpirit Award From Pan African Arts Society").

Next up for the Pan African Arts Society is a re-launch of the “Urban Xen Film Garden" independent movie series in the fall. The society also plans to establish more partnerships to support the new monthly after-hours fundraising party, "Afroblu." The board of directors is also being revamped to more realistically reflect the needs of the non-profit organization. The society’s founder, Ekundayo, said people who are interested in engaging, artistic, educational work in the urban community are invited to become volunteers.

Editor's note: For more information, visit www.panafricanarts.org.

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